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desktop real-estate. Expert user
interface developers were brought
in by BNP Paribas to examine the
Cortex platform and map out the
user’s journey to identify where
that workflow can be streamlined
or simplified.
Simultaneously on the client side,
firms are upgrading or imple-
menting digital infrastructures to
automate their own workflow, so
BNP Paribas says it is imperative
that Cortex LIVE can be integrated
within the whole FX ecosystem
and with client workflows. In
order to achieve this, BNP Paribas
teamed up with financial markets
operating systems specialist and
industry disruptor, OpenFin.
“Cortex Live is the first external
platform that BNP Paribas has put
on OpenFin, but the bank has been
a supporter of OpenFin in terms of
internal use cases for many years,”
explains Adam Toms, CEO of
OpenFin. “With the development
of the new platform, BNP Paribas
adopted some of the best compo-
nents that OpenFin has to offer,
including the FDC3 interoperabil-
ity standards and user experience.
It is a big step forward and, frankly,
any organisation moving forward
with interoperability is going to be
market leading vendor.”
“It’s encouraging to see, given my
background and that FX has his-
torically been an asset class with
a lower level of transparency, that
BNP Paribas have made a real push
with transparency, with real-time
TCA and in-depth venue analysis.
That is a powerful differentiation.”
Onboarding clients, particu-
larly the more traditional asset
managers, to a new platform can
be a headache in terms of legal
paperwork and getting the system
onto client desktops. To address
this, BNP Paribas has ensured that
the Cortex LIVE platform is ac-
cessible and downloadable via the
62 // TheTrade // Fall 2019
app store on Bloomberg, which means that clients can
download the platform within the Bloomberg ecosys-
tem without having to go through a major integration
process. For those that often struggle to keep track
of usernames and passwords, Cortex LIVE clients
will not even have to log in, as Bloomberg is able to
authenticate a client’s system for easy access.
“Cortex LIVE being available via Bloomberg
removes that integration barrier, and that’s why we
expect the adoption rate of clients consuming Cortex
LIVE to be significant,” says Nick Hamilton, head of
EMEA eFX sales at BNP Paribas. “It streamlines and
simplifies workflow. Clients just have to download the
platform from the Bloomberg app store and they’ll
have access to all of the enriched functionality.”
Future-proofing
With the OpenFin integration, BNP Paribas claims it
is ‘future-proofing’ the new platform and, eventually,
systems on the client side will be able to communicate
with BNP Paribas’ digital trading assistant, ALiX,
“Cortex LIVE being available via Bloomberg
removes that integration barrier, and that’s why
we expect the adoption rate of clients consuming
Cortex LIVE to be significant.”
NICK HAMILTON, BNP PARIBAS
to create a fully automated and integrated trading
platform. Although the FX industry is not quite at this
stage yet technologically speaking, BNP Paribas has
laid the foundations to take ALiX and Cortex LIVE a
step further.
In the early days, ALiX will be fed with basic re-
sponses, but the machine will self-learn and be able
to respond, building a rapport with the client as they
ask the digital trading assistant more questions. As
ALiX is given more data its intelligence will grow
and broaden its remit from guiding clients not just
through their FX algo trading execution, but for all FX
activities.
“The vision is that we will broaden the ALiX con-
cept as a holistic solution across the FX execution
environment for all of your activities as a user on
Cortex,” says Joe Nash, digital FX chief operating
officer at BNP Paribas. “Then it becomes more than
the execution control point for the algo business, it
will be a digital trading assistant for everything you’re
doing in the FX space. Pushing content, trade ideas,